Fiction Friday #18 - Exploring the Canadian West

Aunt Becky. Unless you were living under a rock, you probably recognize and love America's favorite aunt of the 80s-90s. Even though it's been twenty years since Full House ended, the character of Becky Donaldson Katsopolis is still what Lori Loughlin is mainly recognized for despite being on other successful shows since. I recently started following her on Facebook and she has been ardently promoting her most current show, called When Calls the Heart.Needless to say, she piqued my interest. I want to watch the show but being the book lover that I am, I figured I NEEDED to read the books first! I have been borrowing digital downloads of the books from the library to read with the Kindle app on my tablet (the instant-download thing is is both good and bad   fast and easy, but dangerous when I have things to do!)Set in the early 1900s, these books follow young, ambitious, educated Elizabeth Thatcher who has grown up in the big city and is leaving home to teach in a small, secluded town of the Canadian Rockies. Elizabeth is very dedicated   to God, to her family, to her students, and to not getting married. However, despite her resistance, she manages to fall in love with a man who loves the frontier and is passionate about helping the Indians in the wilderness areas of the Candian West.I'm only halfway through the series and already the adventures and circumstances they have survived amaze me. At the beginning, it was fun to read about towns where only a few people had vehicles because they were so new and what life was like in that time period. Then the more I read, the more primative the setting became. Each new adventure had different challenges, physical and emotional. Language barriers. Sicknesses. Wildfires. Loneliness. Discouragement. Unfulfilled dreams. Death. So many crazy situations that I can't even imagine having to live through as I read in my modern-day comfort of a house with real floors, indoor plumbing, electricity, and the internet.With each new book, I feel like I should really know more about how to live off the land and hunt and fish and survive without WIFI. Janette Oke, the author, did an amazing job with these books. The stories fascinate me. The characters are relatable. I found myself trying to hold back tears at certain parts and busting up with laughter at other parts.I have read When Calls the Heart, When Comes the Spring, When Breaks the Dawn, and When Hope Springs New, which make up the first half of the series. The second half of the series was written much later, the last two having been written in the last couple years. I'm curious to see if and how her writing is different!When I had read the first book, I eagerly pulled up the TV show information on IMDB to see what actors played which characters. I was confused to find that other than the main character, none of the charater names looked familiar, it was a bit disheartening. Then I realized that the When Calls the Heart movie, which was made in 2013, was based on these early books. The TV show When Calls the Heart follows the niece of the main character, who has the same name, as she sets out on her own adventures. The niece, Elizabeth Thatcher, shows up sparingly in the first few books, so I'm anxious to see if the later books pick up her story more. No matter what, I plan to enjoy them!! Then I plan to enjoy the movie and TV show! I suggest you all do the same!